Sony NGP Officially Renamed PlayStation Vita

There have been a lot of rumors about the next handheld coming from Sony. They have finally made it official with the annoucement of the PlayStation Vita at the Sony Press Conference on Monday. It boasts some pretty impressive hardware, a nice screen, and it looks like they already have some developers on board.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE)today announced PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) as the official platform name for the next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP). Wi-Fi model will be available for 24,980 yen (including tax) in Japan, $249 in US and euro 249 in Europe, 3G/Wi-Fi model will be available for 29,980 yen (including tax) in Japan, $299 in US and euro 299 in Europe and successively launch in global market starting the end of 2011.

The pricing sounds pretty good, and the hardware and controls look pretty impressive. We hope to have some hands-on impressions from E3 later. Take a look at the Press Release for more details.